A 14th person has died of bird flu in Indonesia, officials said today. The announcement came as tests into the cause of an 11-year-old girl's death in Turkey continued.Runizar Roesin, of Indonesia's bird flu information centre, said a four-year-old boy whose sister died from bird flu last week had died in the west Javanese city of Bandung on Tuesday.Another sibling and the boy's father had been admitted to hospital with bird flu-like symptoms including fever and respiratory problems, officials said. "We are seeing this case as a new cluster for Indonesia," Hariadi Wibisono, a health ministry official, said.He added that blood and swab samples from all three children and the father had been sent to a World Health Organisation laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation. So far, Indonesia has had 12 bird flu deaths confirmed by the WHO.... http://www.guardian.co.uk

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said Thursday he will oppose Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito’s confirmation, saying he did not believe the conservative judge would be independent of President Bush and the executive branch in his future rulings.“At a time when the president is seizing unprecedented power, the Supreme Court needs to act as a check and to provide balance,” Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a speech at Georgetown University’s law school. “Based on the hearing and his record, I have no confidence that Judge Alito would provide that check and balance.”It is not a surprise that Vermont senator is voting against Alito. He was one of the nominee’s harshest interrogators at Alito’s confirmation hearings last week....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10925164/from/RSS/

States are trying to toughen penalties for suspected drunken drivers who refuse to take a breath test, arguing motorists too often get a milder penalty than if they had provided evidence that could convict them. Bills to lengthen license suspensions or make it a criminal offense to refuse a test are pending in five states, including Ohio, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where the percentages of people refusing are among the highest in the nation. Nationwide, an average of 25% of people pulled over on suspicion of drunken driving refuse to take a breath test, which is designed to estimate the amount of alcohol in the blood, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In every state but Nevada, the punishment is a suspended driver's license. Still, people who refuse believing they would fail a test might avoid a drunken driving conviction and jail time. ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-01-19-statesbreathtest_x.htm?csp=34

The British government is to co-host an international summit in London at the end of the month to agree a five-year plan to speed up the reconstruction of Afghanistan and confront an upsurge in violence. The conference is to be chaired jointly by Tony Blair, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, is also scheduled to attend.In the face of criticism that Afghanistan has been forgotten by the international community, Mr Annan told the Guardian: "After all they have achieved in recent years, the Afghan people deserve to be reassured that [Afghanistan's] special relationship with the international community will remain strong."The London conference is an excellent opportunity to send a signal to [the Afghans] that the outside world continues to share their goals as they build a democracy that respects the rights of all."...http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1689655,00.html

Pakistani intelligence agents hunted Wednesday for the graves of four al-Qaeda militants believed killed in an airstrike near the Afghan border including one authorities suspect was a high-ranking al-Qaeda figure. ABC News reported that a master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert for al-Qaeda was killed in the attack on the village of Damadola last week. He was identified as Midhat Mursi, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, who ran an al-Qaeda training camp and has a $5 million reward on his head. According to ABC, Pakistani officials also said two other terror network officials were killed: Khalid Habib, the al-Qaeda operations chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan; and Abdul Rehman al Magrabi, a senior operations commander for the group. Pentagon officials said they had no information on the report. A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak to journalists, ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-18-pakistan-hunt_x.htm?csp=34

Human rights abuses in Asian nations increased last year, highlighted by crackdowns on opposition supporters in countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Nepal, Human Rights Watch said. ``The `Asian values' argument that human rights are different in Asia has been defeated,'' Brad Adams, the group's Asia division director, said in a report. ``The abusive governments that used to hide behind that rhetoric still commit the worst kinds of abuses without fear of punishment.'' The New York-based group cited Myanmar's detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Cambodia bringing defamation charges against human rights and opposition leaders and Nepal's King Gyanendra restricting political activity under state of emergency regulations....http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ahl5U23OEoEM&refer=home